Nasser M. Abbasi wrote :
> This is what WRI should do: make the player support all Mathematica
> functions, and make arrangements with PC makers to have it in each PC and
> also fill the shopping malls and the post officies with CD's that have the
> player in it (like they did with AOL many years ago). in few years, the
> Mathematica player will be just as widespreadly used as PDF reader is today,
I am afraid it would not be enough.
The reason the pdf format is so widespread is that everyone can create
a pdf file without having to buy Adobe Acrobat. Every word processor
let you save your work to pdf. You can even install 'pdf printer
drivers' that let you save in pdf whatever you want. same story for
another ubiquitous format: .doc.
This is the reason many people also want a pdf reader on their machine.
PDF reader that has not to be necessarily that supplied by Adobe. There
are plenty of third party reader out there, many of them light and
protable (i.e. do not require installation and do not clutter your hard
disk).
The problem (I perceive) with the Mathematica format is that:
1. It requires Mathematica (big and, for companies, expensive) to
create the content.
2. It requires the Mathematica Player to read the content. And the
Player itself is not very light (because it does a lot more than simply
displaying files).
3. Only WRI can supply those programs. There are no third party
alternatives.
I do not see how .NB could become as widespread as .PDF unless there is
a virtually free way to produce (static) mathematica documents without
having to buy Mathematica.
This does not mean that WRI has to give Mathematica away from free
(even if it has gone a long way by creating the Home License). It might
want to go back to the Mathematica READER and, instead of expanding it
in order to PLAY .nbp file, they could allow it to WRITE .nb files.
Making it a free, possibly light and portable, word processor for math
and science.
The offer will than see:
A light and portable Mathematica Reader/Writer, to write and read
static nb.
Mathematica, that has the computation engine to run input cells and
producing output, plus producing simulations in the .nbp format.
Mathematica Player to run the simulation created with Mathematica.
I believe that this apparently insane giveaway will let WRI become the
makers of
> the main tool of exchanging scientific and mathematical
> notes between scientists, engineers and students.
And since they would also be the maker of the only tool that can
'evaluate' the content of the notes, it will only do good to their
sales.
cheers,
Peltio